Former Winnebago track star dives into another challenge

Philip Devine doesn’t need much time off to re-energize his mind and body for the start of a new season, even when his turnaround is to a completely different sport.

Jay Taft

Philip Devine doesn’t need much time off to re-energize his mind and body for the start of a new season, even when his turnaround is to a completely different sport.

Devine, a former state diving champion for the Byron Tigers, is fresh off an NCAA Division III national-championship season on the 3-meter board for the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

He also was a state medalist for the Winnebago track team, and he is now quickly getting set to make a run at a national-tournament bid in the decathlon.

He had a whole week off to prepare.

“I love a challenge, and I’m always looking for things that really push me mentally and physically,” Devine said in a telephone interview while back home in Winnebago last week. “I get a little down time, and then it’s right back at it. I just want to be the best at whatever I do, and I want to take advantage of it while I can.”

In 2008 as senior, Devine won the IHSA 1-meter diving state championship for a Byron team that co-ops with Winnebago. From there, he went straight on to place sixth in the state in the 300-meter intermediate hurdles and seventh in the 110 high hurdles.

Hoping to carry that success over to college, Devine had a bad start to his Oshkosh career when he hit the board on a practice dive and broke his leg just two weeks into the season. But he came back in time to win the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Association Conference title in 1- and 3-meter diving, and then went on to take fifth in the 1-meter and seventh in the 3-meter competitions at last year’s national championships.

For a competitor like him, that wasn’t good enough.

“I was always worrying about the leg,” Devine said of the ’09 postseason. “And I knew I could do more. I knew I could get higher.”

Though his leg was still healing, he went out for track last year, taking part in a couple of meets in the 800 and the mile, “mainly just working my legs back into shape.”

He made the Titans’ cross country team last fall, and ran for the B team much of the way, posting a personal-best time of 29.17 on an 8,000-meter course at an invitational at Kenosha, Wis. That’s when he started thinking about becoming a multi-event track athlete.

“It just looked appealing to me. I’m not a real standout in anything, except maybe hurdles. But I can do it all,” Devine said. “And I figured since I’m pretty good at learning new things, I could put it all together pretty well and do the decathlon.”

While working his way to nationals on the diving board this winter, Devine was feeling things out in the pentathlon for the Titans’ indoor track and field team. In fact, on one day in late February, he competed in the pool and on the track.

“I found out I had a little more time in between (pentathlon) events, and I ran over for a quick warm up and then ended up winning the 1-meter diving at that meet,” Devine said. “Yeah, then I literally ran back for the last two events at the track meet and did pretty well there, too.”

He got second in one of his early pentathlons.

He focused on his dives over the next couple of weeks, especially the 31/2 somersault in a pike position that secured his three-meter national championship on March 3. He then went on to place fifth in the one-meter competition two days later before settling in for a week off last week.

“That whole week was pretty surreal. I was in fifth place going into the finals, and I still felt like a long shot,” he said. “And then I nailed my dive, and as soon as I hit the water, I knew it was good.”

He posted 74 points on that dive alone and cruised to the championship.

“Because of this kid’s work ethic and his attitude, I pretty much knew he would get there eventually,” said Gary Cacciapaglia, his former diving coach at Byron. “Philip’s a competitive guy — he’s nice about it, but he’s competitive. I’ve got a feeling he’ll make it a long ways on the track team, too.”

He’s off to a good start. A couple of weeks ago he fell less than a point short of qualifying for the D-III indoor nationals in the pentathlon after doing it for less than a month. Now he will add in a few events he has yet to even attempt — like the javelin and the pole vault — and give the decathlon a whirl.

“Why not,” he added. “I may be short on time, but it sure will be fun giving it a shot.”

The Titans’ first outdoor track meet is Friday, but Devine isn’t sure if he’ll be ready to compete in his first decathlon yet. But when does debut, he believes it will be the start of something big.

“Now that I can focus on one sport, I feel like I have a good chance,” Devine said. “If all goes well, I think I could be an All-American in the decathlon. That’s how I feel; that’s how I have to feel.”

College reporter Jay Taft can be reached at 815-987-1382 or jtaft@rrstar.com.